Senate Rejects Plan Endorsed by 9/11 Panel

By PHILIP SHENON

Published: October 8, 2004

The Senate voted on Thursday to reject a central recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission for an overhaul of how Congress conducts oversight of intelligence matters, a system that the commission found to be ''dysfunctional.''

There was no little irony in the 74-to-23 vote, since it came a day after senators voted overwhelmingly to heed the Sept. 11 commission's call for a restructuring of the executive branch, including creation of a new cabinet-level job of national intelligence director.

The issue of the executive branch overhaul was moved to the House floor on Wednesday, with Republican leaders continuing to press for an intelligence bill that would include several contentious law enforcement provisions not requested by the Sept. 11 commission.

The defeated Senate proposal on Thursday was endorsed by the leaders of the Sept. 11 commission and would have restructured the Senate by providing the Senate's Intelligence Committee with the power to appropriate the billions of dollars in the government's intelligence budget, authority that is now with the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The bipartisan commission had urged that appropriations power be placed in House and Senate intelligence committees, providing them with the stature that comes from having direct authority to determine how the intelligence community's budget is spent.

In arguing for the proposal for a Senate overhaul, its sponsor, Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was instrumental in creating the Sept. 11 commission, cited the ''golden rule'' of governmental power: ''the power resides in the purse, the golden rule prevails around here.''

He added: ''If we're going to have a truly effective Intelligence Committee oversight that can function with strength and power, then we're going to have to give them appropriation authority.''

But he failed to win over most of his colleagues, especially members of the powerful Appropriations Committee, who made clear that they felt slighted by the implication of the Sept. 11 commission that they were unable to deal effectively with oversight of the estimated $40 billion annual intelligence budget.

''I'm not interested in turf,'' insisted Senator Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican who is chairman of the appropriations panel. ''Consolidating appropriations authority for intelligence would undermine 140 years of Congressional tradition and ignore our years of experience on such matters.''

The Senate is considering other plans to restructure itself in response to criticism of the Sept. 11 commission, including a bipartisan proposal from Senate leaders to create an appropriations subcommittee for intelligence and convert the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee into the Homeland Security Committee, with new powers.

Those plans appeared to have been damned with faint praise from leaders of the Sept. 11 commission. In a statement issued before the Thursday vote, the commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, and vice chairman, Lee H. Hamilton, threw their support behind Mr. McCain's actions. They described the other, bipartisan proposals as ''constructive'' and ''useful'' but also ''modest'' and ''not as far-reaching as those recommended by the commission.''

Photo: Representative Christopher Shays and Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, center, held a news conference yesterday to urge the House to pass a bill that endorses a recommendation of the 9/11 commission. (Photo by Carol T. Powers for The New York Times)